It's a Hard life | Hardzello♡

13. Waffles

The next morning, the two sleep in to catch up some sleep.
When the sun is high enough to peep through the blinds, Joe opens his eyes. Immediately a smile appears on his face.
Ben is lying curled up against him, his hand loosely rested on Joe's hip. A peaceful look has coated his face.
Joe smiles. He is glad that there aren't secrets between them anymore.
After checking the time, Joe decides to just relax and enjoy this moment with Ben so close to him. He closes his eyes again, and listens to Ben's slow breathing.

When Joe feels Ben's breathing fasten a little after a while, he knows that the boy is slowly waking up. He can't help but be curious what would happen if he pretends to be still asleep. What would Ben do to wake him?
With his eyes closed and his breathing under control, he waits until Ben is fully awake. 
Ben stirs a little before opening his eyes with a soft groan.
Even with his eyes closed, Joe can feel Ben staring at him. Then he suddenly feels Ben's hand caressing his cheek softly.
"Thank you so much for helping me Joey boy. You're too sweet." Ben whispers softly.
Joe gets goosebumps from his low and husky voice. And the nickname he gave him. He really has to make an effort not to smile. To make sure Ben doesn't see him blush, the ginger snuggles closer to the boy, and nuzzles his face into Ben's neck.
He hears Ben chuckle softly. "You're cute when you're asleep." The blond says softly.
Those words make Joe only blush even more. But it also kinda confuses him. First Ben says he loves him, and now that he is cute. Joe really hopes that Ben feels the same way about him as he does about Ben.
But maybe he meant I love you as my best friend. And everyone looks cute when they're asleep, right? So what if Ben doesn't mean it the way Joe hopes he does?
That would make things awkward.  

After Ben just played with Joe's ginger hair while secretly admiring the boy, he tries to carefully maneuver from under Joe. "I'll make us some breakfast, Joey." He whispers softly. He pulls the duvet over Joe and tucks him in, so the boy doesn't get cold.
As soon as Ben has left the room, Joe opens his eyes and lets out a shaky breath. As far as he sees it now, he has three options.
Option one is that he starts flirting a bit with Ben to see how he will react.
Or he could just tell Ben how he feels about him, but then he would risk their friendship. And that's the last thing he wants, obviously.
So his third option is hiding that he has feelings for Ben, and trying to get rid of them. But deep down, he knows that that's not what he wants.
Joe doesn't get much more time to think about it, because Ben enters the room with two plates of food. 
"Morning sunshine." The Brit says with a chuckle when he sees Joe's sleepy face and his messy hair.
The ginger blushes a little and smiles. "Good morning. How did you sleep?" Joe asks the boy when he sits down next to him in bed again.
Ben smiles. "Amazing. Thanks for last night. For everything." He says gratefully as he hands Joe his plate of breakfast.
The latter smiles when he sees that Ben made them waffles. "No problem. How's your hand?" 
Ben looks at his hand and shrugs. "Okay, I guess. It doesn't hurt, so it will be fine." He says with a reassuring smile.
Joe smiles and takes a bite of his waffle. He doesn't know when, but he made a choice.
It's gonna be option one.
And so, Joe carefully places his head on Ben's shoulder.
The blond seems to be okay with it, because he just continues eating his waffles.
"Can I ask something? About last night?" Joe asks after a while of them just eating their waffles in silence.
Ben hums as an answer.
"What was your nightmare about?" The ginger asks softly.
Ben takes a deep breath, and swallows. "It uhm- it was about last night actually. You know, me telling you about Allen." He says.
Joe lifts his head from Ben's shoulder, and looks at the boy questioningly.
"But instead of reacting the way you did, you uhm...-" Ben doesn't finish his sentence.
Joe can see him struggle, which is why he takes his hand to encourage him.
"Well, you got mad at me and blamed me. Just like everyone else. And...-" A single tear finds its way down Ben's cheek. "I'm sorry, never mind. It's silly." He mumbles while letting himself being pulled against Joe's chest by the ginger self.
Joe gently runs his hand through Ben's hair. "It's not. Now finish your sentence. I got mad, I blamed you, and?" He knows that it's hard for Ben to talk about, but he doesn't want the boy to bottle up his feelings.
Ben takes a deep breath. "Youweredisgustedofme, andbeatmeup." He says in one go.

Ben says it so fast that Joe has to think for a moment about what he just said. But once Joe figures out what the boy said, his eyes widen. "I beat you up? Ben, look at me." With his index finger he lifts Ben's head to make sure he has his attention. "I would never, ever, hurt you." He says softly.
A weak smile forms around Ben's lips. "I know. It's just some kind of... trauma, I guess." Ben almost whispers.
And again, Joe's eyes widen. "Y-you've been beaten up before because of this?" He hardly dares to pronounce this sentence.
Ben looks away, avoiding Joe's gaze. He briefly nods.
"Jesus Ben." Joe whispers before pulling the boy into a hug.
"Thank you." Ben whispers during the hug, happy about Joe's reaction to all this.
Joe gives him a reassuring smile when they let go of each other, and hands Ben his plate of waffles. "Let's enjoy our waffles, shall we?" He says.
Ben sighs relieved and nods with a big smile. "Yeah let's do that."

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Prepare for the next chapter Y'all😋

I hope everyone's okay♡
Xxx from me