Only If It's You (Ben Drowned Fanfic) [1st Place in Ben Drowned 2016]

Chapter Fourteen: Underneath the Surface

Yes- She was looking at Ben. 

Starlight and patches of shade bounced off his image and she could smell the moss in his clothes. Except, he looked different. No- He looked the same, but the smallest details popped out and sent sparks down her chest. His usual blond tresses of hair framed his face as he held her, his lips pulled into a worried frown. He acted and looked the same. Yet everything felt so...

"It's warm," Lynette shivered. His fingers swallowed her cheeks as she tried to look away. He quickly held her in place and she had no choice but to stare up at him. Ben wouldn't let her look away. "And so cold."

Ben blinked in confusion. Quick yet slow blinks. Like how a cat blinks to say "I love you". Yet similar to the grotesque way the eyelids on lizards overlap. As he stared, she lost herself in the sky of his eyes. Lynette knew his irises were red, but now, they were flecked with hues of blue and brown. They kind of looked like the eyes of newborns she saw in family videos, where their color hovered in the middle of the spectrum. She remembered his mangled body reflected in the lake and she wondered if he had hazel eyes when he was alive. If not, why else would his eyes look so pretty?

Ben quirked a brow and ignored the sudden change in her demeanor. A second ago, she was ready to bolt it. Now, she lost her will to run? Ben opened his mouth to say something obnoxious, but he stopped halfway through the insult. 

He realized something was very, very wrong.

Ben latched onto her head to make sure he wasn't seeing things and she complied with his rough handling. Ben's fingers clawed her face and he adjusted the way the moonlight illuminated her. But it slowly dawned on him: He wasn't going to find a trace of green. As the elf inspected her, he found blue, neon rings that expanded around her black orbs like sonar waves. It was like he was peering into marbles. He couldn't find her pupils or iris. Any traces of light were lost to the glowing rings of blue.

"Lynette. You're-" He trailed off, his baby-doe eyes blown into wonder.

She saw herself reflected in red as she nodded, unable to stop her attention from darting from one detail of his face to another. Just like Link, his face had a youthful charm that invited people. Though he was a pain in the ass, she had to admit -right now- he was handsome. Undeniably breathtaking, almost anyone would mistake him for an angel covered with oceanic weeds. His lips were pale and chapped, but in the center, pinks and reds meandered over the bruise-like welts. Looking back, he bit his lips a lot while reading articles on her laptop. He also pushed his hair back when he found himself overcome by boredom. If Lynette looked close enough, she could see his dark, golden roots in his hair. Perhaps, he had darker hair before he died and the ends were exposed to the sun. Or was it the games doing? Could ghosts even get highlights? 

Ben swallowed. "Do you see anything strange?"

Most of all, he and Link had the same lashes. The lashes swooped into wings like he was wearing permanent eyeliner. The outline was so subtle when she first met him yet the color was so noticeable now. How did she not know before?

"I can see you," she said, eerily reaching for him.

Her voice came out lower than a breath and she gaped at his figure. He looked like the child in the water, except he looked vulnerable, stripped of his terrifying facade. She could read him like an open book as little flashes of his intentions entered her mind, each idea too fast to catch unless she tried hard enough. And with each passing second, she felt his creeping terror.

Because Ben knew she was peeking. Prying. Reading him. 

And he hated it.  

"Lynette, close your eyes," Ben said, swallowing.