heard your name in every love song {Ben Hardy}

11. i picture it soft and i ache

Exactly two weeks after Comic Con, only a few days after filming your Horseman scene, you wake up to a surprising amount of messages on your groupchat after Merissa had found and sent a link from an Australian celebrity and lifestyle website, POPSUGAR.

[No, I Will Not Shut Up About Their Hands – Ben Hardy & Y/N Y/L/N's Onscreen Romance Blossoms Off Screen?]

Apparently an 'inside source' was able to report that you'd been getting intimate around the time filming started, and of course the writer was obsessing over your affectionate gestures during Comic Con, but overall it was trite and could be easily explained away as simply reflecting the closeness of your characters.

Thankfully, your friends don't seem to be taking it too seriously, and are, instead, mocking the article's lack of actual evidence, and sensationalist buzz words, mercilessly.

(Merissa) TELL METAL DAD I LOVE HIM: @y/n why does no one think we're in love??? do I have to hold your hand more???

(Jamie) stop changing my name to Jamie Lannister: my favourite wedding tradition; you may now hold your husband's hand

(Andrew) Keeper Of The Braincell: lmfao jam I cant wait to hold ur hand

(Jamie) stop changing my name to Jamie Lannister: 😘😘😘

(Merissa) TELL METAL DAD I LOVE HIM: like honestly who is this """"inside source"""""?

(Andrew) Keeper Of The Braincell: hur dur yes im a production assistant I saw them standing next to each other on set

(Andrew) Keeper Of The Braincell: im losing my mind who let this get published 🤣🤣🤣

You've never been more grateful for your friends than you are now, so the idea of lying to them feels... disingenuous.

(Y/N) england's best export: what r u talking about?? Obviously online tabloids ONLY tell the Absolute Truth

You know they'll read it as sarcastic, and their responding laughing emojis mean as much, and you put your phone back on charge. Ben, in bed beside you, stirs, yawns, and asks if everything's okay. It's quiet and strangely intimate, and something in your chest tightens.

"There's speculation about us online," you explain softly, looking up at the roof, "apparently someone is saying they saw us hooking up around the time filming started," you paused, deliberated, but Ben cut you off before you could continue.

"And the panel just added fuel to the fire, didn't it?"

"Yeah," you agreed, the word hanging in the air for a long moment, "most people think it's just for publicity, if it's real at all."

"Has your manager said anything?" Ben asks, which surprised you, and you're quick to check your email; two emails from your manager about projects that want you to audition, and an email from the director about how he needs you on set next week for a new scene, nothing about your public image.

"If you're manager, and the studio's PR team aren't worried, then it's fine." Ben reasoned. When you turn to him, he's got his face half crushed into the pillow, wearing the barest frown, looking every bit his character's namesake against the stark and perfect white of the hotel's sheets. Your phone goes off again, and you pick it up, holding it up to read the message on your lock screen.

"Who's 'Tell Metal Dad I Love Him'?" Ben asks, more amused at the name than anything else. You turn the screen off once you've gotten the gist of the message; Merissa's lamenting that she doesn't have anyone to 'hold her hand'.