Okay this book is gonna be like 20-25 chapters I think. Before anyone says it, reminder, this is not going to have dirty stuff. Don't get any ideas. *Koff koff Jay koff* 

Bedroom
Berica's House
10:45 AM
Saturday
February 4th

Erica's POV:
I'd been thinking about it for a while now. 

A kid would be tough to raise.

And while Ben was a normal kid when he was younger, all I've known is spying.

I have no clue at all how to raise a kid. 

I shook him awake gently. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me curiously.

"Hey Ben?" 

"What's up babe?"

"What in the heck are we supposed to teach our kid?" 

"Well I think like everything." He laughed.

"I know but like what specifically?"

"Well the simple things like how to talk and walk and stuff like that."

"And spy stuff?"

"Yeah. If we decide we want the kid to grow up and go to Spy School, we should probably give em the Ripley/Hale advantages." He teased.

"What do you mean if?"

"Well I don't want to assume what will happen." He said as he sat up a little.

"Wouldn't our kids go to Spy School?"

"Do you want them to?"

"Well... yeah."

"Okay, then we let them go." He shrugged.

"Do you not want them to?"

"What I want is for them to have some time to be regular kids. I definitely want them to get the chance to be spies like we did, but I don't want them to never have fun."

"So like a balance of training and fun?"

"Exactly." He smiled.

"That's fair. I didn't get to do much normal stuff as a kid bec-"

"Because you weren't normal?" He teased.

"Hey!"

He snickered so I punched his arm.

"Ow!"

"Did you seriously just say because I wasn't normal?"

 "Am I wrong though-" I punched his arm again. "Hey! Am I?"

"I was training to be a spy. Of course I wasn't normal."

"Zoe seemed pretty normal when I met her." He pointed out.

"Why Zoe? Why not Chip or Jawa or Mike huh? Why her?" I said slightly aggressively.

"You still get jealous." He sang quietly with that goofy smirk on his face.

"Nick Jonas at a time like this?"

He shrugged.

"Why Zoe though? You didn't answer my question." 

He hummed the tune of jealous. I punched his arm so he put his hands on the sides of my shoulders and made me look at him.

"Babe, I love you, but you need to calm down." He said with a laugh. "I said Zoe because Jawa was a freak of nature and like good at everything. Which didn't seem normal at all. Chip was a bully and a jerk so I didn't pay much attention to how normal he seemed. As for Mike, he wasn't a spy until years later. Therefore not making him a valid example. He wasn't a spy when I first knew him, so he was and seemed normal. Zoe was the one who seemed like a normal nice girl. I mean, it definitely wasn't you, let's be real."

"Alright. That's fair." I shrugged and I saw him visibly relax. "But why'd you say calm down?"

"You looked like you were going to blow up at me. And you said it like really aggressively. I didn't want you to kill me." He laughed.

So maybe it was more than slightly aggressively... my bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"I wouldn't kill you." 

"Only maim or seriously injure?" He said, mimicking Dobby.

I laughed and shook my head.

"Dork."

"I may be a dork but no one, along with my wife didn't seem to have any complaints about my dorkishness when I figured out Spyder's plans before everyone else repeatedly."

"You have quite the big head about that, don't you?"

"You have quite the big head about everything else, don't you?" He teased again. "And you've got a pretty big sarcasm addiction. And a borrowing one. And a-"

"You are awfully gutsy recently." I cut him off, slightly annoyedly. Or at least I think it was slightly.

"Well what's the worst that could happen? You try to hurt me but can't because I do this," He gave me his mischievous smirk and looked at me semi-curiously. "You freeze, I lean in and do this," He leaned in and whispered, "I love you E," softly in my ear. He kissed my neck and brought his face back up so it was inches from mine. I felt breath catch as he stared into my eyes before kissing me. When he pulled away, he relaxed that dumb mischievous smirk was back. But now it seemed happily smug. "And voila. You're no longer mad."

"Now wait a minute- what in the world just happened?" I said, trying to regain my senses.

"What happened was I proved you wrong. You can't hurt me. You love me. Even if you're mad, I just smirk, whisper 'I love you' into your ear, kiss your neck, rest my forehead against yours while staring into your eyes, before kissing you, and once again, smirk. And poof, you're no longer mad."

"That's it? It's that simple?" I asked, astounded.

He shrugged again.

"You tell me. You still annoyed?"

I wasn't.

Crap.

"Alright fine doofus. But remember, I can use that too you know. Just wait. You get mad so I pout and smirk, whisper in your ear, kiss you neck, stare into your eyes, kiss you, and boom, you're not mad anymore."

"Nah. It doesn't work like that."

"Just you wait until the next time you get mad at me. I betcha it will bub." 

"Next time? Since when do I get mad at you? Like rarely ever. You're the moody one. I usually stay pretty calm and happy."

"Moody?"

"I know right? Big shocker there. The Ice Queen, or should I say ex Ice Queen, being the moody one of the two of us? Believe you me, I'm shocked as you are. Before, I could have dated a literal block of ice and it'd still have been about 45 degrees warmer than you." 

"Don't act like you haven't changed either Benny Boy. You used to be so nerdy I thought you asked for a pocket protector and velcro shoes for Christmas."

"The glow up is real babe." He... yep, you guessed it... shrugged. "And at least I had friends. Can't say the same for younger you."

"Sure you had friends but you didn't have any spy skills. At least I had those."

"I had brains. Don't recall you figuring their plans out. Ever. Meanwhile you manipulated the hell out of me. I may not have had many spy skills to begin with, but I was a good team player. Kind and forgiving. Maybe even too much in your case."

"At least I could keep my emotions in check."

"At least I had  them."

"Well I wouldn't have had to manipulate you if you'd have had the courage to do what needed to be done." 

As soon as I said it, I knew I'd crossed a line. We'd just been joking around until I pushed it into hurtful territory. What came next, surprised me the most.

"This is one of the things you do that I hate the most. I love you... so much. But you try endlessly to justify anything wrong you do by making it the other person's fault." His voice broke slightly. 

I was frozen at this. He had a point.

"When you lied to me and manipulated me over and over and over again, I still forgave and believed you the next time. And each time you ignored that and did it again. It really hurt that you continuously treated me like my feelings didn't matter at all. It got to the point where I couldn't tell what was genuine and what was just a lie to get me to do what you wanted all for dumb missions you manipulated me onto and then acted like everything was my fault and that you'd rather I not be there the entire time. Even though I hadn't wanted to go in the first place!" 

His voice finally rose in a small burst of anger. He closed his eyes and sighed. He ran his hands through his hair and held it against the top of his head. He took a deep breath and let it go before letting his hair fall back down in front of his face. 

"And still, to this day, you try to justify it all. Instead of trying to apologize for how hurt it made me." He said calmer, his voice still unsteady.

He stood up and left the room.

I lay there on the bed, knowing he wasn't wrong.

Instead of apologizing for it, I just acted like it was the only way and never thought about it again. I didn't realize how much I'd hurt him.

I got up and went to find him. I saw him making coffee, facing away from me.

"Hey." I said quietly.

"Hey."

"Listen I... I'm really sorry Ben. I didn't realize how much I hurt you."

"I appreciate that."

He still hadn't looked at me.

"Ben. I really am sorry."

He still didn't look at me, and I heard a noise.

"Ben? Can you look at me?"

He slowly looked over. And burst out laughing.

"Aaand... scene."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"While my skills used to suck, I've improved. Especially at acting." He snickered as he handed me a cup of coffee. "Though that last bit was kinda true. And I appreciate the apology. You failed though, b t dubs."

"Huh?"

"Well you said you'd do the same thing I did to you, to me the next time I got mad at you. But you didn't."

"Of all the-" I started angrily and poked him aggressively right in the chest.

"I love you." He whispered before he leaned in and kissed me.

And my anger melted away.

When he finally let me go, I was frozen.

"That works too I guess. Shorter to explain too."

"Dammit." I sighed. "Whatever, but don't pull that acting bullcrap on me again."

"Don't pull that manipulative bullcrap on me again."

I rolled my eyes as I drank some more coffee.

"You've gotten way more confident."

"I know. I kinda like it too. Keeps you on your toes a lil more."

"Whatever." I sighed in desperation.

Okay, sorry it took a lil longer but it's really hard to figure out what to write for this book so far. It'll get easier but bear with me until then.