#wanted to title this drama king but I held back benny's pettiness in this one

[ofnifflersandkings]

Bumping into Strangers

Character: Benny Watts A/n: Finally finished a benny request even if it took me 10 years and a contract with the devil.

*

You tapped your foot against the pristine marble floor of the hotel lobby, adjusting the arsenal of camera equiptment you had shoved under your arms to prepare for the chess match later today. You were placed in charged of gathering photos for the new Chess Review edition, the first real professional project of your career. To say you were nervous was the understatement of the year.

You shuffled through your camera bag, strategizing the kinds of lenses you might have to use throughout the day. The lighting in the hotel was pretty dim, the thick brown curtains lazily swaying over most of the windows did little to help bring in any natural light. Luckily, you noticed a rather large chandelier hanging over the area where most of the chess boards were situated. It sort of reminded you of an old smoking room in a gentleman’s club, but given the sort of people surrounding you, it wasn’t that far off.

You tilted your head, taking a few paces forward as you tried to scope out the area better. Usually, you’d have gotten this out of the way earlier in the morning. But Benny insisted upon introducing you to more of his chess associates and promised you could kick him in the ass for it later, proclaiming your irrefutable talent would be more than enough to get you through the day.

 Still walking forward, you didn’t even notice someone heading right towards you until the both of you collided. The sudden weight sent you stumbling backwards, and you probably would’ve fallen right on your back had the stranger not reached out for you.

His hands held firmly onto your shoulders, helping you regain your balance before you could fall.

“Are you alright?” The stranger said in a slightly alarmed tone, his brows shot upwards and his eyes wide.

It took you a moment to process what exactly happened, and you blinked before your brain caught up to speed.

“Yes! Gosh, I’m so sorry,” You fumbled, feeling the heat crawl up your neck when you realized how you were at the fault. “I wasn’t paying attention at all.”

The man smiled, the curls on his forehead shaking whenever his laugh and doing little to help your embarrassment. He looked down at your camera and his eyes lit up. “Is that a Pentax?”

Your eyebrows knit together, not knowing how he knew what camera you used, but you followed his gaze and realized you were wearing it around your neck.

“Oh! Yeah it’s-“

“Everything alright here?”

You whipped your head over at the sound of the familiar voice, smiling when you saw Benny standing just a ways off from the two fo you.

He had one of his hands hanging loosely by his belt loop as his eyes darted between you and the other man. His brows furrowed into a deep frown, his gaze shifting to the man’s hands, which you now realized were still holding onto your shoulders.

You and him must’ve realized the same thing because he immediately released his hold on you and you both awkwardly laughed as you took a step back.

“Yes! We’re okay, I just wasn’t paying attention so I ran right into…,” You faltered, remembering you never got his name.

He must’ve sensed your distress because he picked it up for you. “Jaime,” he said, looking back at you for a moment with a smile. “It was both of our faults really.”

Benny crossed his arms, looking at you to find any warning in them. But when he couldn’t find any his spirits didn’t seem to lift any. 

“Well, it’s a pretty small space. I’d imagine it’s easy to run into each other,” He gave a pointed look to Jaime, a stiff smile taking over his face. “We’ll just have to keep out a better watch won’t we?”

Benny turned back to you, a more pleasant look coming over him now. “I just wanted to let you know the matches are starting soon.”

You adjusted the strap of your camera bag and turned to Jaime. “I’ll see you later then?”

His ears seemed to perk up at the idea. “Sure! I’ll see you.”

You walked over to Benny, who immediately placed his arm over your shoulder. “Come on, I’ll show you the best spot in the house,” He looked back at Jaime once more before leading you further away from him.

*

Benny looked passed his opponent, trying to find you in the growing crowd as he waited to make his next move. He leaned back in his chair, arms folding over each other and his lip twitching upward when he noticed you snapping photos of another match.

It was short lived though when he also noticed that Jaime guy hanging out not too close to you. He recalled seeing him at a few other tournaments and figured he was a friend of one of the other chess guys. But now it felt like every time he looked up he had inched closer to where you were standing.

Benny was so caught up trying to keep up with the two of you he almost missed it when his opponent finally moved. 

He had the poor guy in check three moves later.

*

Benny sat in one of the armchairs in the lobby, the post tournament chatter buzzing around over his eyes and falling in and out of ears. He was in an oddly somber mood despite winning the whole thing, he usually energy for bravado now a bit depleted.

He shook hands with his final opponent and turned around, fully expecting you to be waiting to congratulated like you always did. But you were nowhere in sight. 

His one heel tapped against the floor, not wanting to leave until he knew where you were. He placed his chin in hand, exhaling dramatically when he thought you might be with Jaime. 

You and him always got together after his matches so he could talk your ear off about strategy and you’d tell him about the kinds of photos you’d gotten or how difficult it was to “get the right lighting”.

He smiled when thinking at your silly antics and when he remembered you weren’t here with now it put him back in a bad mood.

His eyes were trained on the floor and when he saw you walking up to him he immediately sat up straighter in his chair.

“Well there you are,” He chided, trying to cover his former disappointment. “I thought you might’ve run out on me.”

You laughed, “Like I’d ever hear the end of it if I even thought about it.” 

Benny watched you put your camera away and fasten the straps on your bag and tried not to seem too eager about wanting to leave. “So, are we off? I can drive ya.”

You shook your head, “I’m actually gonna stick around a little longer. The fellow from earlier? We got to talking about some camera stuff during the downtime between matches and offered to grab drinks to talk about it more later.”

You suddenly caught yourself and you looked at him with a sheepish smile. “That’s alright isn’t it? I know we usually do something together when your matches are over.”

Benny scoffed, knowing he really had no right to tell you to leave with him, even if he wanted to. “Course it is, I’m sure he’ll make better conversation on the subject than I can.” He said with a smile.

You grinned, ruffling his hair with your hand. “Congratulations though, I heard you were especially tough to beat today. Even I was impressed.”

Benny leaned back, his smile turning a little more genuine when he heard your praise, his wounded ego healing itself already. “What can I say? I was feeling motivated today.” 

You laughed, placing your hands into your pockets. “Well, I shouldn’t keep him waiting, don’t wanna be out too late.”

Benny turned his head and saw Jaime shifting his weight between his legs over by the lobby door. His eyes kept flittering over to the two of you talking.

Benny smirked before looking back up at you.

“Hey wait, you have something,” He pointed to the top of his head and you ran your fingers through your hair hoping to get it. Instead, he shook his head and laughed. “Nope, still there.”

You were about to ask him what the hell he was talking about. Instead, you felt him tug on your camera strap, the pressure making you lean forward so you more on his level where he was sitting.

Your noses almost bumped into each other, but you pulled back to prevent it. Benny lifted his hand up again, taking whatever was in your in your hair and flicking it away before you got a good look at it. Then, he lightly tucked the hair at the front of your head behind your ear.

“That’s better.” He commented, still using his free hand to hold onto your camera strap so you couldn’t get too far away from him.

Your brows furrowed at his odd behavior, and you laughed at the sudden realization of how close you two were. “You’re being strange…stranger than usual anyways.”

Benny chuckled, releasing his old on you but not without making direct eye contact with your new friend before he did. He sent a wink his way and had to hold back a laugh when he saw Jaime’s shoulders tense.

“I’ll see you later?” He asked, watching you grab your bag. “Tell your friend I said hello.”

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