Daydreams and Disasters

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Ben stared as Nancy frowned at something just to the left of him and made shushing noises. It was odd, not for its regularity, but because he'd been feeling as if he was catching glimpses of things out of the corners of his eyes.

This wasn't a new problem. He'd been aware of it since his miraculous return from the dead. But it was worsening as Halloween approached and he wasn't ready to ask about it just yet.

Xiao had complained to him, gently, that he needed to actually talk more about his problems, for all he spent his days talking, that he had trauma that actually needed to be unpacked in a healthy way, not with a laugh and a change of subject.

He did not ask if Xiao was jumping at ghosts that he couldn't see.

"Could you maybe not lean over him like that?" she asked, annoyance clear in her voice. "I get the feeling that any second you're going to whisper my cards in his ear. You're a dirty cheater Kane and just because you've never learned the rules to this particular card game doesn't mean you won't help me lose!"

Ben spun, watching as the heat haze he'd probably daydreamed turned out to be nothing but his own overactive imagination.

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Ben," she reminded him, tapping her finger on the kotatsu he'd so kindly left for her a year ago, "He's a ghost. You're not going to see him unless he wants to be seen."

Ben could feel himself balking at her words.

"And what if I could?" He replied lightly, pushing the boundaries of their fragile, rebuilding relationship. Nancy eyed him sharply, concern and care in her dark eyes as she leaned back, leg brushing his under the warm table.

Normally he'd feel shivers down his spine for an entirely different reason, but right now they were cold, uncomfortable, and more than a little reminiscent of the feeling he'd get from Nancy's skin when she'd exerted herself among the dead a little too much.

"Krunch," she ignored his comment momentarily, "Please stop phasing through Ben. You're making him uncomfortable." Ben resisted the urge to spin again but the chill left him and Nancy shook her head.

"He means well, but a hundred years without positive interaction would stress any of us, you know? He wanted to give you a hug." She sighed, "Because he's worried about you."

The unspoken I'm worried about you too hangs in the air.

Ben feels his smile return.

"It's nothing, really," he extended the peace offering for all that it was small, "I just keep getting heat hazes out of the corners of my eyes." He watches as Nancy's expression gets contemplative and adds "It started after I, uh, returned, and it gets worse this time every year."

She nodded, placing the cards down between them, and getting up to come around the table. Placing her hands over his eyes, Ben tried not to jump at the unexpected touch, at her soft fingers on his face. She leaned in, whisper perfectly placed to send another shiver down his spine.

This was an expected shiver. Warm and wanting and all together expected as much as her touch wasn't.

"Alright guys," her voice quiet, calm, "And gals of course, do your thing!"

Ben opens his eyes and is disappointed that he sees exactly nothing. His noise of distress is sad and confused. Maybe he was just going insane.

Maybe the hands massaging his stiff shoulders were too distracting.

"Nothing, huh?" Ben nods, thunking his head back onto her chest. He feels the rumble of a chuckle through it, can hear the sympathetic smile without looking. "It's okay, Ben. I believe you. Besides, you're not missing much."

Nancy lets out a hiss and turns to smack at something next to her. "Kane Connaway you are so freaking insufferable! Come back and fight me like the undead man you are!"

Ben picks his cards up again and shakes his head to clear it.

He totally peeks at her cards as she's chasing down unrepentant ghosts.