heard your name in every love song {Ben Hardy}

7. even when the sun goes down

Fooling around feels like far too light of a phrase for what you and Ben are doing considering the teeth marks on his shoulder that earned him a raised eyebrow from the wardrobe assistant on your first day of filming. You're very carefully schooling your expression into something innocent, which is actually rather easy with all your facial prosthetics and contact lenses, as another assistant is fiddling with the neckline of your dress, using fashion tape to get it to stay in place.

"Fun night?" You ask innocently when he makes eye contact with you over her shoulder.

"Can't complain," his lips twist into something wry and halfway amused as he looks away quickly. You'll apologise later, but for now it's better to play dumb regarding the whole situation.

You're running through your fight choreography with the stunt men while they're rigging Ben into his harness; he'd been up there before during rehearsals, but now, in full costume and hair, with all the lighting and extras around, it felt like everything was finally coming together. On the ground, you're still ducking and weaving, stepping through movement sequences, speaking through your lines as you do, though occasionally look up to see him moving through the air in the cage, and you're a little awed.

The grimy, fight-club style cage they've built is terrifyingly detailed, and you're already in awe of the production. There's extras milling around, and every so often a crew member comes over and applies more hairspray or powders your nose. You and Jennifer run through your lines and hype each other up as you're waiting for the director to give Kodi and Ben notes. Soon enough, you're ushered outside to the waiting car, from which you'd step out from. After a brief word with the director, he calls action.

Everything had to be filmed twice; once with you in prosthetics, acting as the clone, and a second time with the prosthetics removed, as the original. It was tedious at times, but the end result would be easier and better than simply adding the prosthetics digitally, and you're pretty sure the digital effects team already had enough going on.

So you went through with the scene as the clone, watching, quiet and intense, letting yourself simmer in the moments when you can watch Ben perform. The lights make him glow, ethereal, as he tells Nightcrawler that if they don't fight, they'll both be killed. They're adding his wings in post, but even so, he's a force to be reckoned with.

And then the cage is overloaded, and the fighting begins, and your stunt double acts as your original's stand-in, when she's not the one fighting that is.

When you leave during the afternoon to have your makeup changed over, they rig up Ben's stunt double to keep things moving, filming the fight with the Angel and Nightcrawler doubles in your absence, and when you return, Ben's standing with Ana, your stunt double, both with their arms crossed, marveling at airborne fight.

"Tell me I look at least half as cool up there," Ben groans almost wistfully as you join them, standing beside him, and his eyes are bright, watching his stunt double move like a particularly vicious Peter Pan.

"When you're not flailing wildly," Ana tells him dryly, and Ben's whole physicality changes, like a disgruntled cat he puffs out his chest.

"I do not flail -"

"I like your hair like this," you tell him, interrupting his indignance, tugging at one of his curls, still with hairspray, "you look like you should be in The Police."

"The band?" Ben gives you a calculating look, and you nod, grinning. Ana starts singing Roxanne under her breath, "I've been told worse." Ben shrugs, gives a smile, and shifts his weight subtly, enough to lean gently against you. "You look like a gogo dancer." He adds.