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treasure_geeks2008-02-14 02:25 pm
elaborationlove.livejournal.com) wrote in treasure_geeks2008-02-14 02:25 pm
(no subject)
Title: Valentine's Horror
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: National Treasure
Characters: Ben/Riley
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: “Oh, come on, Ri. We’ve lived scarier stuff than this.”
Author's Notes: This is a response to the Valentine's Day Challenge, mentioned in an earlier post that I'm too lazy to find.
Beta Credit: None.
Disclaimer: I don't have any money and therefore, don't own anything.
Word Count: 2,111
“Oh, come on, Ri. We’ve lived scarier stuff than this.”
“Yeah, well,” Riley crossed his arms. “Why can’t we just see a sappy love story like everyone else?”
Ben looked around at the surrounding couples, all out for a Valentine’s night at the movies.
“Do we look like everyone else, Ri?”
“Last time I checked, we are all of the human race. Now, unless some curse or some crazy aliens has changed that, I’d say the fact still stands.”
“You’re so cute when you argue.” Ben pinched Riley’s cheek briefly. Riley winced and then rolled his eyes.
“Please stop. It’s embarrassing,” he said with a monotone.
Ben smiled before turning to face the back of the person in front of him.
“Ben, please? I really have no interest in seeing this movie.”
“Riley, let’s just try it, okay? If you don’t like it that much, we can leave.”
“Pay sixteen dollars for five previews and two minutes of movie? I don’t think so.”
Ben brushed his lips against Riley’s ear, something which he had done many times so people around them wouldn’t be offended—they could always claim Ben had something more on the private side to tell him, and in this case, both scenarios applied. “Then we’ll sneak into that one you want to see…what’s it called, again?”
“Jest, Ben. Jest,” he reminded him for the millionth time.
“Oh, right.”
“God,” Riley groaned. The moved up in the line a few feet as a family exited the box office and entered the theater. Riley watched them hand their tickets to the pimpled employee and wondered how many trees movie tickets cost in a week. “This movie is going to be so awful.”
“How would you know?”
“Previews. Duh.”
“You can’t judge a movie by its previews and you know it. Remember how lame the previews for Blood Diamond had been? And that movie was incredible.”
“You would think so.”
“You didn’t like it?”
Riley didn’t answer.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t think Leonardo was particularly sexy with his little Bri’ish boy accent,” he finished his sentence with such an accent in his speech.
Riley looked around suspiciously. “That doesn’t make or break a movie. And his accent slipped several times.”
Ben shrugged. “The acting was better than in the latest Star Wars.”
“All acting was better than that. But the point of Star Wars isn’t great acting. It’s…the epic-ness. The classic Good-Versus-Evil.”
The line moved again, and Ben didn’t make an effort to argue.
“We should have stayed home and watched that.”
“You’ll love this.”
“Haven’t you figured out that I don’t like dark, scary, stair-less tombs?”
“Yes. But this is zombies. Or vampires…or something…”
“Like it makes a difference. The point is, me and scary don’t like each other so well.”
“I like you both just fine,” Ben said.
“Yeah, well.”
“Yeah, well, nothing.”
“Next.” At the call, the line moved again. Only one couple was in front of Ben and Riley now and Riley was desperately trying to come up with some excuse as to why they shouldn’t see the scary movie.
“Ben, what if I have nightmares?”
“All the more reason for you to come visit me tonight,” he said from the corner of his mouth.
“Beeeeeen. Please? Can’t we just see something else?”
“No, Riley. We’re seeing Eye to Eye and that’s the end of it.”
“Since when are you my mother?”
“Since when do you act like you’re seven years old?”
Riley gave him a look.
“Okay, never mind. Just…let’s try it, alright?”
The line moved again and Riley just crossed his arms, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the cute ticket guy.
“Two for Eye to Eye, please.”
Riley could see the boy was trying to figure out if Ben and Riley were paying together. Ben put a twenty and a ten down on the counter to make his intention to buy the two tickets as one purchase clear.
“Sixteen seventy-eight,” the counter boy said, sliding the money towards him.
He pressed some buttons on the cash register and produced Ben’s change, as well as the couple’s tickets.
“Enjoy the show,” he kid said, clearly bored.
Ben noticed Riley was fiddling with a piece of paper and had to yank Riley away when he noticed him trying to hand the piece of paper to the boy in the ticket box. Ben snatched the paper away when they were inside the actual building.
“555-8197?”
Riley grinned sheepishly.
“Riley, you can’t just give someone your number.”
“Sure I can.”
“There’s no way in hell that boy was eighteen. He probably wasn’t even seventeen.”
“Not my fault. Blame his parents.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go get the popcorn.”
Traditionally, one would pay for the tickets and the other would pay for the food and drinks. As Ben ordered the food—large popcorn, two large Sierra Mists, three packages of Twizzlers and water—Riley searched his pockets for some crumpled bills that just had to be in there somewhere.
“Twelve eighty-three, please.”
Riley ignored the girl at the counter and continued to search his baggie khakis.
“Ri?”
“Uh…um…” Riley stuttered, slightly embarrassed and slightly panicked. Ben hated it when Riley didn’t hold up his end. Riley, admittedly, was bad at carrying his weight in anything. Ben did remember that he was an excellent friend—and an even better kisser—so he let it slide often. Another blush spread across Riley’s cheeks. “Don’t forget about that time in Mount Rushmore with the flooding and—“
“Oh, you’re Ben Gates?”
“Uh, no. Actually, I am,” Ben said, wishing Riley hadn’t brought up the subject.
“I wrote a book. You know, the one about all the conspiracies? There’s a chapter on Area Fifty—“
“How much money did you end up getting?” The question was clearly directed at Ben. Riley sighed.
“Oh, uh…um…enough,” his voice cracked slightly and he handed the girl the money.
“Right. Um,” the girl smiled. “Enjoy.”
As they walked away, Riley leaned over to Ben. “If she had had a pen and paper, hundred bucks says she would have given you her number. And she was no older than the ticket kid. And she knows how old she was.”
“You knew that other kid wasn’t over eighteen.”
“I could pass for twenty. Some people look younger than they really are.”
“Riley.”
“Ben.”
“Riley.”
“Ben.”
“Riley.”
“Ben!”
The previews for the movie had already started and their back-and-forth continued into the theater. Occupants of the theater shushed them. Riley grumbled something about how people should just get over themselves. Ben led the way to a seat in the middle. Riley liked to sit close to the screen and Ben liked it far away. They compromised every time now without even talking about it.
As soon as the movie started, Riley clutched the armrests’ ends.
“Ri, relax. It’s just a movie. Here,” he left his hand on his lap, palm up.
Riley hesitantly grabbed Ben’s hand.
“Okay?”
Riley didn’t respond. His unoccupied hand reached into the popcorn bucket on his lap, taking the most buttery pieces. Ben was more of a salt fan, and it worked out nicely: the butter was on top and the salt usually fell towards the bottom of the bowl. Plus, Ben didn’t like eating as soon as a movie started.
Riley knew the movie had really started when a head rolled into the foreground of the setting.
“Oh…hello. Why, aren’t you lovely?” Riley bit his lip as he commented. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy CRAP. He should have tried harder to get out of this. This was…this was…he just might faint.
“B-Ben?”
“Yeah, Ri?”
“I’m gonna…uh…I’m dizzy…and…woaaah.”
“Take some deep breaths.”
Ben wasn’t all that sensitive when it came to Riley freaking out. The younger of the two did it far too often and sometimes put a little too much Drama King into the show. Ben reminded Riley it was only a movie again.
The rest of the show went pretty smoothly for Riley. Generally, after the initial shock, he was okay.
Halfway through the movie, Riley gave Ben the popcorn and opened a package of Twizzlers. The first one he pulled out, he bit a piece off of each end and stuck it in his soda as a makeshift straw. Ben gave him a look for it.
“What?” Riley hissed. “It makes it delicious.”
“It’s disgusting.”
“You haven’t lived yet.”
“On the contrary,” Ben answered, turning back to the movie after the person behind him kicked his seat. Riley surreptitiously flipped the guy off and leaned over to kiss Ben’s cheek, just to aggravate him that much more. Riley heard the guy grumble, “Unbelievable!” and he smirked. Hardcore conservative at a zombie movie. Like that made any sense. Must be without a lady friend, Riley thought with a snicker.
When the movie was over, everyone stood to leave. Ben and Riley waited for the crowd, as they usually did, and then exited the theater after checking to be sure they didn’t leave anything they wanted behind. Ben had a principle about not leaving trash behind, either, but Riley “accidentally” dropped the Twizzlers wrapper on the floor.
“So,” Ben began as they walked out into the cold air, “what did you think?”
“Crummy special effects.”
“That first head was pretty realistic.”
“Not really. It just…startled me, that’s all.”
“Okay. Sure.”
“Really, Ben.”
“Okay, okay. Jeez. Alright. You hungry?”
Riley glanced town at his tummy. “No…but I could eat some more!”
“You can always eat more.”
Riley grinned.
“Well, where do you want to go then?”
“Let’s just go home and have some Easy Mac.”
“You sure?”
“You’re asking the King of Mac ‘n’ Cheese if he’s sure he wants to eat…Mac ‘n’ Cheese? Have you learned nothing?”
Ben reached over and pinched Riley’s cheek. “You’re cute.”
“Yeah, I know.”
When they got into Ben’s car, Riley immediately changed the radio station.
“No way are we listening to this junk,” he said as he did so.
Ben rolled his eyes. Riley’s tolerance for classical music would have to grow. He had a lot of work to do.
At home, Riley hopped his way into the kitchen.
“Are you going to have some too?” he asked.
“Uh,” Ben placed his coat over the back of a chair, “yeah.”
“A lot?”
“Probably not.”
Riley decided two packages of the bagged macaroni would work. The water took forever to heat up and while he waited, he traced circles on Ben’s upper back while Ben looked over some papers at the kitchen table.
“Hmmm,” Ben responded softly. “Feels good.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmm.” Ben craned his neck so that he could kiss Riley full on the mouth. Slowly, Riley turned the spinning, rolling chair so Ben was facing him. The chair had been “installed” at the kitchen table because Ben did his work so often there, and disliked having to get up to get papers.
“Come’ere,” Ben murmured against Riley’s mouth, pulling him down to sit on him. Riley straddled Ben’s thighs, obeying. Ben put his hands on either side of Riley’s face, urging him to dip his head down so Ben could kiss him more fully. Riley bit Ben’s bottom lip. The older of the two let out a low sound, which, Riley suspected, came from way down in his belly.
During their kissing, Riley managed to mess up Ben’s hair quite a bit. It stuck, in the end, in all directions and Riley couldn’t help but laugh softly. Ben reached out and ruffled Riley’s hair. Until they were interrupted by a sound that wasn’t familiar. Riley glanced at the stove, still giddy from Ben’s kisses.
“Oh, crap!”
Foamy water spilled over onto the stovetop, only to be evaporated by the extreme heat the stove produced. Bits of macaroni were scalded on the burner, leaving, in the pot, less than there was to begin with.
“We might have to share a little bit more than intended,” Riley said sheepishly.
“I don’t mind,” Ben said, grinning.
After Riley had prepared the macaroni and cheese, they sat side by side and enjoyed their meal from the same bowl.
“I think…I think I’m about ready to go to bed,” Riley said, stretching as he got up. He left the dishes on the table and made his way toward the stairs.
Riley looked at the digital clock next to his bed as he heard his bedroom door open.
2:22.
2:22?
“Ben, what do you want…?” Riley groaned, sitting up and putting his glasses on crookedly.
“Uh…I’m…the movie…”
Riley lifted the covers. “Come on, get in. I told you it was a bad idea to see it.”
***
Comments?
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: National Treasure
Characters: Ben/Riley
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: “Oh, come on, Ri. We’ve lived scarier stuff than this.”
Author's Notes: This is a response to the Valentine's Day Challenge, mentioned in an earlier post that I'm too lazy to find.
Beta Credit: None.
Disclaimer: I don't have any money and therefore, don't own anything.
Word Count: 2,111
“Oh, come on, Ri. We’ve lived scarier stuff than this.”
“Yeah, well,” Riley crossed his arms. “Why can’t we just see a sappy love story like everyone else?”
Ben looked around at the surrounding couples, all out for a Valentine’s night at the movies.
“Do we look like everyone else, Ri?”
“Last time I checked, we are all of the human race. Now, unless some curse or some crazy aliens has changed that, I’d say the fact still stands.”
“You’re so cute when you argue.” Ben pinched Riley’s cheek briefly. Riley winced and then rolled his eyes.
“Please stop. It’s embarrassing,” he said with a monotone.
Ben smiled before turning to face the back of the person in front of him.
“Ben, please? I really have no interest in seeing this movie.”
“Riley, let’s just try it, okay? If you don’t like it that much, we can leave.”
“Pay sixteen dollars for five previews and two minutes of movie? I don’t think so.”
Ben brushed his lips against Riley’s ear, something which he had done many times so people around them wouldn’t be offended—they could always claim Ben had something more on the private side to tell him, and in this case, both scenarios applied. “Then we’ll sneak into that one you want to see…what’s it called, again?”
“Jest, Ben. Jest,” he reminded him for the millionth time.
“Oh, right.”
“God,” Riley groaned. The moved up in the line a few feet as a family exited the box office and entered the theater. Riley watched them hand their tickets to the pimpled employee and wondered how many trees movie tickets cost in a week. “This movie is going to be so awful.”
“How would you know?”
“Previews. Duh.”
“You can’t judge a movie by its previews and you know it. Remember how lame the previews for Blood Diamond had been? And that movie was incredible.”
“You would think so.”
“You didn’t like it?”
Riley didn’t answer.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t think Leonardo was particularly sexy with his little Bri’ish boy accent,” he finished his sentence with such an accent in his speech.
Riley looked around suspiciously. “That doesn’t make or break a movie. And his accent slipped several times.”
Ben shrugged. “The acting was better than in the latest Star Wars.”
“All acting was better than that. But the point of Star Wars isn’t great acting. It’s…the epic-ness. The classic Good-Versus-Evil.”
The line moved again, and Ben didn’t make an effort to argue.
“We should have stayed home and watched that.”
“You’ll love this.”
“Haven’t you figured out that I don’t like dark, scary, stair-less tombs?”
“Yes. But this is zombies. Or vampires…or something…”
“Like it makes a difference. The point is, me and scary don’t like each other so well.”
“I like you both just fine,” Ben said.
“Yeah, well.”
“Yeah, well, nothing.”
“Next.” At the call, the line moved again. Only one couple was in front of Ben and Riley now and Riley was desperately trying to come up with some excuse as to why they shouldn’t see the scary movie.
“Ben, what if I have nightmares?”
“All the more reason for you to come visit me tonight,” he said from the corner of his mouth.
“Beeeeeen. Please? Can’t we just see something else?”
“No, Riley. We’re seeing Eye to Eye and that’s the end of it.”
“Since when are you my mother?”
“Since when do you act like you’re seven years old?”
Riley gave him a look.
“Okay, never mind. Just…let’s try it, alright?”
The line moved again and Riley just crossed his arms, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the cute ticket guy.
“Two for Eye to Eye, please.”
Riley could see the boy was trying to figure out if Ben and Riley were paying together. Ben put a twenty and a ten down on the counter to make his intention to buy the two tickets as one purchase clear.
“Sixteen seventy-eight,” the counter boy said, sliding the money towards him.
He pressed some buttons on the cash register and produced Ben’s change, as well as the couple’s tickets.
“Enjoy the show,” he kid said, clearly bored.
Ben noticed Riley was fiddling with a piece of paper and had to yank Riley away when he noticed him trying to hand the piece of paper to the boy in the ticket box. Ben snatched the paper away when they were inside the actual building.
“555-8197?”
Riley grinned sheepishly.
“Riley, you can’t just give someone your number.”
“Sure I can.”
“There’s no way in hell that boy was eighteen. He probably wasn’t even seventeen.”
“Not my fault. Blame his parents.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go get the popcorn.”
Traditionally, one would pay for the tickets and the other would pay for the food and drinks. As Ben ordered the food—large popcorn, two large Sierra Mists, three packages of Twizzlers and water—Riley searched his pockets for some crumpled bills that just had to be in there somewhere.
“Twelve eighty-three, please.”
Riley ignored the girl at the counter and continued to search his baggie khakis.
“Ri?”
“Uh…um…” Riley stuttered, slightly embarrassed and slightly panicked. Ben hated it when Riley didn’t hold up his end. Riley, admittedly, was bad at carrying his weight in anything. Ben did remember that he was an excellent friend—and an even better kisser—so he let it slide often. Another blush spread across Riley’s cheeks. “Don’t forget about that time in Mount Rushmore with the flooding and—“
“Oh, you’re Ben Gates?”
“Uh, no. Actually, I am,” Ben said, wishing Riley hadn’t brought up the subject.
“I wrote a book. You know, the one about all the conspiracies? There’s a chapter on Area Fifty—“
“How much money did you end up getting?” The question was clearly directed at Ben. Riley sighed.
“Oh, uh…um…enough,” his voice cracked slightly and he handed the girl the money.
“Right. Um,” the girl smiled. “Enjoy.”
As they walked away, Riley leaned over to Ben. “If she had had a pen and paper, hundred bucks says she would have given you her number. And she was no older than the ticket kid. And she knows how old she was.”
“You knew that other kid wasn’t over eighteen.”
“I could pass for twenty. Some people look younger than they really are.”
“Riley.”
“Ben.”
“Riley.”
“Ben.”
“Riley.”
“Ben!”
The previews for the movie had already started and their back-and-forth continued into the theater. Occupants of the theater shushed them. Riley grumbled something about how people should just get over themselves. Ben led the way to a seat in the middle. Riley liked to sit close to the screen and Ben liked it far away. They compromised every time now without even talking about it.
As soon as the movie started, Riley clutched the armrests’ ends.
“Ri, relax. It’s just a movie. Here,” he left his hand on his lap, palm up.
Riley hesitantly grabbed Ben’s hand.
“Okay?”
Riley didn’t respond. His unoccupied hand reached into the popcorn bucket on his lap, taking the most buttery pieces. Ben was more of a salt fan, and it worked out nicely: the butter was on top and the salt usually fell towards the bottom of the bowl. Plus, Ben didn’t like eating as soon as a movie started.
Riley knew the movie had really started when a head rolled into the foreground of the setting.
“Oh…hello. Why, aren’t you lovely?” Riley bit his lip as he commented. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy CRAP. He should have tried harder to get out of this. This was…this was…he just might faint.
“B-Ben?”
“Yeah, Ri?”
“I’m gonna…uh…I’m dizzy…and…woaaah.”
“Take some deep breaths.”
Ben wasn’t all that sensitive when it came to Riley freaking out. The younger of the two did it far too often and sometimes put a little too much Drama King into the show. Ben reminded Riley it was only a movie again.
The rest of the show went pretty smoothly for Riley. Generally, after the initial shock, he was okay.
Halfway through the movie, Riley gave Ben the popcorn and opened a package of Twizzlers. The first one he pulled out, he bit a piece off of each end and stuck it in his soda as a makeshift straw. Ben gave him a look for it.
“What?” Riley hissed. “It makes it delicious.”
“It’s disgusting.”
“You haven’t lived yet.”
“On the contrary,” Ben answered, turning back to the movie after the person behind him kicked his seat. Riley surreptitiously flipped the guy off and leaned over to kiss Ben’s cheek, just to aggravate him that much more. Riley heard the guy grumble, “Unbelievable!” and he smirked. Hardcore conservative at a zombie movie. Like that made any sense. Must be without a lady friend, Riley thought with a snicker.
When the movie was over, everyone stood to leave. Ben and Riley waited for the crowd, as they usually did, and then exited the theater after checking to be sure they didn’t leave anything they wanted behind. Ben had a principle about not leaving trash behind, either, but Riley “accidentally” dropped the Twizzlers wrapper on the floor.
“So,” Ben began as they walked out into the cold air, “what did you think?”
“Crummy special effects.”
“That first head was pretty realistic.”
“Not really. It just…startled me, that’s all.”
“Okay. Sure.”
“Really, Ben.”
“Okay, okay. Jeez. Alright. You hungry?”
Riley glanced town at his tummy. “No…but I could eat some more!”
“You can always eat more.”
Riley grinned.
“Well, where do you want to go then?”
“Let’s just go home and have some Easy Mac.”
“You sure?”
“You’re asking the King of Mac ‘n’ Cheese if he’s sure he wants to eat…Mac ‘n’ Cheese? Have you learned nothing?”
Ben reached over and pinched Riley’s cheek. “You’re cute.”
“Yeah, I know.”
When they got into Ben’s car, Riley immediately changed the radio station.
“No way are we listening to this junk,” he said as he did so.
Ben rolled his eyes. Riley’s tolerance for classical music would have to grow. He had a lot of work to do.
At home, Riley hopped his way into the kitchen.
“Are you going to have some too?” he asked.
“Uh,” Ben placed his coat over the back of a chair, “yeah.”
“A lot?”
“Probably not.”
Riley decided two packages of the bagged macaroni would work. The water took forever to heat up and while he waited, he traced circles on Ben’s upper back while Ben looked over some papers at the kitchen table.
“Hmmm,” Ben responded softly. “Feels good.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmm.” Ben craned his neck so that he could kiss Riley full on the mouth. Slowly, Riley turned the spinning, rolling chair so Ben was facing him. The chair had been “installed” at the kitchen table because Ben did his work so often there, and disliked having to get up to get papers.
“Come’ere,” Ben murmured against Riley’s mouth, pulling him down to sit on him. Riley straddled Ben’s thighs, obeying. Ben put his hands on either side of Riley’s face, urging him to dip his head down so Ben could kiss him more fully. Riley bit Ben’s bottom lip. The older of the two let out a low sound, which, Riley suspected, came from way down in his belly.
During their kissing, Riley managed to mess up Ben’s hair quite a bit. It stuck, in the end, in all directions and Riley couldn’t help but laugh softly. Ben reached out and ruffled Riley’s hair. Until they were interrupted by a sound that wasn’t familiar. Riley glanced at the stove, still giddy from Ben’s kisses.
“Oh, crap!”
Foamy water spilled over onto the stovetop, only to be evaporated by the extreme heat the stove produced. Bits of macaroni were scalded on the burner, leaving, in the pot, less than there was to begin with.
“We might have to share a little bit more than intended,” Riley said sheepishly.
“I don’t mind,” Ben said, grinning.
After Riley had prepared the macaroni and cheese, they sat side by side and enjoyed their meal from the same bowl.
“I think…I think I’m about ready to go to bed,” Riley said, stretching as he got up. He left the dishes on the table and made his way toward the stairs.
Riley looked at the digital clock next to his bed as he heard his bedroom door open.
2:22.
2:22?
“Ben, what do you want…?” Riley groaned, sitting up and putting his glasses on crookedly.
“Uh…I’m…the movie…”
Riley lifted the covers. “Come on, get in. I told you it was a bad idea to see it.”
***
Comments?
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Very cute story, much love for Ben and Riley being ridiculous in public. Good job!
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That was so cute, I loved the banter between Ben and Riley, and the little twist at the end.
Great!
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