Ballet Shoes: Encore

Recounting Injuries

Yeah, you read the chapter title right. This is Ben we're talking about! Of course he's injured himself doing ballet. Who hasn't?

------------------------------

Third Person's P.O.V.

Age: 32

It was around mid-afternoon. Ben had just put Kenny down for his afternoon nap. It took him a while but managed to do it. His son was finally sleeping peacefully in the nursery. The house now unusually quiet for there to be a newborn and two tired parents residing in it. But, Ben and Kai would cherish the silence while they could. Who knows how long Kenny will be asleep for? Probably not longer than an hour.

As such, Kai and Ben were using this time to do a couple things for themselves. Kai was curled up in an armchair in the living room. Her nose buried in a book she'd been trying to finish reading for the past three months. Luckily, she only had two chapters left so she would definitely finish it by the time Kenny woke up from his nap. As for Ben, he was quietly doing some stretches across the room from his wife. Said stretches got more and more intense as he went on.

Every few minutes, Kai would peep over her book to glance at Ben. Each time she did, her interest in reading the book dwindled and instead replaced with curiosity. The positions Ben would hold for a couple minutes at a time seemed rather difficult. Obviously, it took him a while to be able to execute them as flawlessly as he does now but that lead Kai to wonder. How many times has Ben injured himself doing ballet? Surely he must have injured himself at least once given his track record in most things.

"Are you going to ask your question or are you going to keep staring at me?"

Kai blinked twice and snapped her book shut. She didn't realize that she'd been staring.

"Sorry baby wolf," she apologized.

"No need to apologize honey," Ben said as he untwisted himself and sat cross-legged on the floor, "Now what do you want to ask?"

"Well... I was wondering," Kai began, "How many times have you injured yourself doing ballet?"

It was Ben's turn to blink twice. 

"That's all?"

"What do you mean 'that's all?' " Kai questioned, "What did you think I was going to ask?"

"I'm not sure but it wasn't anything close to that," Ben answered, "But to answer your question about... fifty times over the years."

"Fifty?!?!" Kai yelled before slamming her hands over her mouth.

The couple then held each other's gaze with bated breath. Neither of them dared to make a sound in fear of waking up their infant son if Kai's previous yell didn't do that already. After a few minutes of silence Ben and Kai sighed in relief. Kenny didn't wake up prematurely from his nap. Thank goodness.

"So fifty injuries from ballet, huh?"

"Yeah but that's mostly sprained ankles," Ben explained.

"What about the rest?" Kai inquired.

"Well," Ben began as he shifted out of his cross-legged position into a very complicated stretch, "I've had a few stress fractures mostly in my metatarsals, a really bad case of trigger toe when I was eighteen, I remember fucking up my left knee at some point and I had hip bursitis."

A few moments of silence passed as Ben continued stretching. He glanced at Kai and found that she was just staring at him again. Her mouth slightly agape and eyes wide.

"What?"

"How can you just casually mention Trochanteric bursitis like that?" Kai asked.

"Because my case wasn't as bad as it could've been," Ben replied.

Kai opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by Kenny's cries coming from the baby monitor. She sighed and began to stand up only for Ben to make a small disapproving noise. He then effortlessly popped up from his precarious position and started heading out of the living room.

"I got him," Ben said as he passed his wife.

Before exiting the room, Ben stopped in the archway. His hand held onto its frame as he glanced back at Kai.

"There are measures in place so I don't have a recurrence. No need to worry," Ben assured.

"How did you-"

"I know your worried face hon," Ben interrupted before continuing his journey to the nursery. 

Kai stared at the spot her husband disappeared from until Kenny's cries stopped. She shook her head and muttered something under her breath before picking up her previously discarded book. Flipping to her bookmarked page and picking up where she left off. The worry Ben mentioned soon fading from her features.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before anyone asks, yes I've injured myself during dance class multiple times but I won't go into it.

Have a good rest of your day/night!