Omg okay I love this idea and it gets better in my opinion now that Queen Catherine walked in to the party. I'm well aware this has become much more like my writing than Stuart Gibbs, but that's kinda the point right? I'm rewriting the scene how I would have, so I'm okay if it's not as realistic as the real thing :) Also, tip, don't be discouraged at the beginning, there will be some classic Berica vs. Catherine action.

Ben's Dorm
Spy School
9:00 PM
April 17th

Ben's POV:
I was sitting on the bed with Erica under my arm and her head was on my shoulder.

As you know, we'd had quite the innocent but romance filled evening. (Don't even try Jay lol ;) So, naturally Catherine came along and interrogated us as always.

I'd wanted to ask Erica what she was thinking since we'd both been silent, when the door suddenly opened. I was tired and mid-thought, and there'd been a lot of human contact for Erica lately, especially romantic with me. We'd kissed twice, she'd kissed my cheek, we'd had a really heart to heart conversation, and she'd let me hug her. So, neither of us were able to react before Catherine, Erica's mother, in case you somehow forgot, was inside staring at us with her mischievous smirk.

"Benjamin, dear, how goes the thinki- oh." She smirked as she saw Erica next to me. "Hello, Erica, dear."

Erica's eyes widened and she quickly moved so my arm wasn't around her anymore. I was a little hurt by the gesture, but I knew it wasn't because of me. However, I was embarrassed and seriously dreading the next conversation I was going to have, because I knew Catherine well enough to know what was coming next.

"So, what were you two lovebirds doing?"

"We were just talking, mother."

"And that's why you were all cozied up next to him? What were you talking about then? As if I have to ask. Surely it couldn't be the mission at this point, let's be real."

She looked at me questioningly, and then Erica looked at me like don't say a word. So I sat there awkwardly as they both stared at me, trying to make me side with them over the other.

"You know what? I think... yeah... I gotta go- uh Mike said he had an idea he wanted to share with me before... Erica came, so I'll be on my wa-" I said, standing up and trying to get away, almost sprinting. I got close to the door, but not out it.

"Sit down." They both said sternly at the same time.

"Ookay." I quickly sat back down, fearing serious injuries. "So much for an escape."

"Benjamin, what were you talking about?"

"Ben. Don't."

I still didn't say anything.

"Okay, I really don't want to get in the middle of you two. Could you two just do like, rock, paper, scissors? That way I can stay safely out of it." I suggested hopefully.

They both waited to see if I was serious.

"I'm not siding with anyone. Either of you could kill or definitely, seriously hurt me. I refuse to get on anyone's bad side between the Hale fam."

Rock, paper, scissor, shoot. Catherine held out paper, Erica held out...

A finger gun.

"Gun beats paper." She said matter of factly.

"That's cheating dear."

"Ben didn't say no gun."

"Not technically but that was kinda implied Erica, I mean-" She glared at me. "Nevermind Erica wins. Alright problem solved."

They both looked at each other. Then to me.

"Right?"

"Not a chance." Catherine declared.

"Yes." Erica argued.

"Mike? Oh Mike is definitely calling me, I gotta go." I exclaimed as I ran out the door.

Or more accurately, into the door.

Neither one seemed to have moved, and yet the door was now shut.

"Okay, Erica, you're my best friend, whether you admit it or not. Mrs. Hale, you're like a second mother to me. I'm not siding with either of you and that's final. I refuse to."

"Aww thank you dear." Catherine said, giving me a hug.

I nodded with a smile.

"Alright, if I can't get to Ben, I'll crack you darling." She shifted her attention to Erica.

"Really mother? I do not crack. Ever."

"I think it may be wise to reconsider telling me dear. While I won't hurt you, since I know you can withstand a great deal of pain," She paused, and gave her a teasing, but malicious smile.

I thought I saw a flash of worry on Erica's face for a fraction of a second.

"Then what do you expect will get me to tell you?"

"Embarrassment."

"No..."

I could see in her eyes she was a little scared of what could go down, and so did Catherine.

"You see, I think Ben would love to hear some childhood stories about one Princess Buttercup. And that's the last bit of mercy you get, since obviously, he's known that one for a little while now. Tell me, or you'll regret it sweetheart."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

I decided that was enough, and promptly charged at the window, trying to get away from this battle of willpower.

Of course Erica intercepted me, and we ended up very close, face to face, as I crashed into her from my charge at the window. She hesitated for a millisecond and then pushed me away from her.

Catherine, of course, watched this with amusement.

"Erica dear, time is running out to spare yourself. Next come conversations we've had since a few Januaries ago. You know which one I mean, and what conversations."

"What conversations?" I asked.

Erica looked at me with a 'don't ask' glance, so I shut up.

"Nevermind."

"No, I think you'd like to know. And it's just the ones after a certain someone was recruited here."

"Huh?"

I remembered that I'd been recruited a while ago and in January.

"Me?"

"Indeed. Though I suppose it was after your trip to the monument and completed you two's first mission that the juicy conversations started to take place."

"What?"

"Stop it mother. It's not funny."

Catherine grinned, knowing she was wearing Erica down.

"When you first showed up, she thought you had no chance here, which was quite rude if I might add, but knew you could lead her to another mission, and she couldn't resist. But as she talked about you, it became more friendly. Since I'm sure she didn't tell you, when she talked to me about your stay at the top of the Washington Monument, she was all happy-ish and I was thrilled and amazed about and by your smarts. She appreciated that you eventually pieced together that he was totally, utterly, bloody useless. I thought it was quite amusing and refreshing myself."

I didn't know what to say, given that my head was spinning from all this information all at once, and from the talk Erica and I'd had not long before, including a hug and 2 kisses.

"Erica was very glad to have made a friend such as you that she felt she could really trust, though I'm sure she never admitted it to you."

Erica looked at me like 'Not a word.' But my mouth had already spoken the words, "Not necessarily."

I slammed my hand against my mouth as my eyes widened a little.

"How do you mean?"

Erica sighed in annoyance and I winced, disappointed in myself because I could tell I'd disappointed her.

"I've always known I was her closest friend, I mean she's opened up to me and let her guard down way more than with anyone else."

Erica looked back at me and shook her head slightly like 'Shut her down.'

"She's opened up to you? Like willingly, intentionally talked to you? And actually told you what she was thinking and feeling?" Catherine asked curiously.

Erica rolled her eyes and sighed at her mother.

"Um... yeah?"I replied with a confused look at her.

"She really does like you more than anyone else. She won't even talk to her father and Cyrus, as you know, isn't the best listener. With me it's on accident or I catch the little things she says unknowingly." She said, slightly sadly, with a half-hearted smile.

Probably bummed that she talked to me more but glad that Erica did talk to someone, even if it's just slightly more than usual, because it's important someone could get her out of her own head every now and then.

"Mother you do remember I'm right here, correct?" Erica asked annoyedly.

"Yes dear. I do." Catherine said, no happier.

Erica's brow furrowed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, though I think I had a pretty good idea.

"I think I'm going to head out."

"Mrs. Hale are you alright?"

"Yes Benjamin, I am. Thank you."

"You don't have to go you know."

"It's alright. I interrupted so I'll let you two get back to talking."

While some people say things like this passive-aggressively, she didn't. She was just sad and hurt.

Catherine started to walk out when I shot Erica a look like 'Just tell her.'

Erica shook her head, semi-aggressively. 'NO.'

We kept communicating like this.

'Just do it.'

'NO.'

Once Catherine was down the hall, I spoke.

"Erica, just tell her. It's not that bad and she's clearly upset. She really cares about you."

"Ben, I don't want to. And that's not my problem. You're the one that said stuff that led her to that conclusion."

"On accident!" I said defensively.

"Still, it's not my problem. It's none of her business what we were talking about."

"She loves you and was happy to see you finally acting like a normal girl around someone."

"I'm not a normal girl."

"I'm well aware of that." I said as I walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" She asked. "We're in your room, remember?"

"I'm going to talk to your mother."

"Why?"

"Because, she's clearly not happy and you won't talk to her."

I said, stopping and leaning against the wall. I waited for a little, before starting to walk away again, when she spoke.

"Fine. I'll talk to her."

"Thank you." I smiled.

"Later."

"Why later?" I asked with a smile as I walked to my bed.

I hoped it meant we could go back to talking. I always loved when she let me in and showed me the real her, pain and honesty and all.

She hesitated before switching back to he cold tone she favored with everyone else, as I felt the happiness I'd had melt away. "We already got super distracted with that complete waste of time, and all around emotional disaster, we're still trying to foil Croatoan, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah... you- you're right." I said, poorly hiding my sadness.

I flopped down on my back across the width of my bed and sighed quietly. I knew I was overreacting, but I couldn't help it. I'd really enjoyed the peaceful conversation and honesty, and now she was back to worrying about the mission and the mission alone. Mind you, I didn't blame her, I wanted to focus on that too. But I just couldn't get her and our conversation out of my head.

Erica's POV:
Something was clearly upsetting him, but me being... well me, I didn't know what to do or say. So I tried my best to cheer him up. And failed miserably. Don't believe me? Observe:

"You... okay?" I asked hesitantly.

He nodded slightly and I sat on the bed next to him.

"Is... something wrong?"

"No, no no. Nothing's wrong. I'm just... thinking." He answered, forcing a smile. "A-about the mission of course. Gotta... try to- figure out their plan."

I laid back so I was able to look him in the eyes and he glanced at me for a second, but kept his gaze fixated on the ceiling.

"Stop lying. What's wrong?"

He didn't say anything.

"Ben, please look at me."

He looked over at me for a couple seconds, and then away again.

"Ben, seriously, I may not be the emotions expert but you're not the emotion-hiding expert. Even I can tell something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong Erica I'm just trying to focus on the mission, since that seems to be the most important thing to you at all times and you're important to me."

"It's not the most important thing."

"Uh huh." He said with a small little laugh that made my heart ache, much to my great dismay. "Sure."

"It's not!" I defended with a tiny smile.

"I don't know E. I just know this is your zone, and I need to do everything I can to help so you don't think I'm useless."

"You're not useless Ben."

"All I do is put the pieces together, after everyone else finds them and saves my butt repeatedly, slightly faster than everyone else."

"That's not true and you know it."

"Sure it is Erica. Like in Mexico. I ruined everything to save Paul Lee, alerting Spyder of our presence and also our living status, since previously they'd thought we died in that crash."

"You saved someone's life."

"Why are you defending me? When it happened you were furious with me."

"That was just in the heat of the moment."

"Like Vail?" He smirked.

"That was just to-"

"Calm me down? I'm well aware of your excuse."

"That's not the point."

"Please, do enlighten me, what is the point?"

"The point is... it was sweet how you tried to save him. Bad guy or not. I would have left him for dead, as we both know. I thought it was funny that you always complained about danger, but the second someone's life was in danger, you unnecessarily put yourself in harm's way to try to save them. It was annoying for sure, but it showed once again how good of a person you are, and proved to me once again, you're nothing like Joshua."

He looked at me with a huge grin on his face.

"But, naturally, tell anyone I said that and you'll be the one hoping some mysterious person would hop down from the vents and save you from my wrath."

He started clapping.

"Finally thought of a new way to say 'if you tell anyone about this, I'll hunt you down and kill you' have you?" He laughed. "About time too. I was starting to get tired of being able to read your mind. To know exactly what you were going to say, anytime we shared a moment, before you even said it."

"You're hilarious." I said sarcastically.

"Glad you think so. I certainly do." He laughed.

I didn't know what to say so I just didn't say anything.

One of the things I liked about being around Ben was we didn't have to talk about random things to avoid awkward silences. We could just sit next to each other and not say anything, and it wouldn't be weird.

I looked up at his ceiling and saw a dark night sky, covered with little white dots.

"They're constellations. They've always amazed me." He said, reading my thoughts like I often did to him.

"Why?"

"It's just staggering to think that there are billions of people on Earth and yet, we're so small in the scheme of things. And even in the scheme of life, to think that somewhere in the world of around 7.8 billion people, is one person that you're destined to spend the rest of your life with seems crazy."

"Huh?"

"Well to think that any one of 7.8 ish billion people is the one for you, and like theoretically, you have no clue as to who this soulmate is, until you love someone so much that you're sure they're the one is absolutely crazy. And even then, you might be wrong." He explained casually.

"You believe in soulmates?" I asked curiously.

"Don't you?" He asked in the same tone.

"I'm not sure what I believe."

"Fair enough. But why do you ask?"

"Not sure really."

"Okay. Well I mean I think in part that I love the idea of soulmates, but I'm not sure why else."

"Do you believe that your destiny is like something written out that will happen that way, no matter what you do?" I asked randomly.

"Not at all. You make your own destiny." He smiled.

"Do you think you've met your soulmate already?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Hey now, that's a loaded question." He laughed, avoiding an answer.

"How so?"

"You can't think of any way that would be a bad question for me to answer?" He laughed again, before explaining. "If I say no, you might get offended, if I say yes and it's not you, you might get offended or maybe even jealous, and if I say yes and it is you, you might get scared away."

"I won't."

"To which one?"

"No promises." I said playfully.

Gods why do I keep asking him questions like this? Or say things playfully? And what am I still doing here, laying on his bed and talking like we're best friends? Well we are, but for our relationship, this is very touchy feely, mushy, heart to heart crap and a casual conversation which I suck at.

"Alright, yes I think it's possible, but I'm still really young, so who knows?"

"And?"

"And what? You said no promises so I'm leaving it at that." He smirked.

"Fine. Then I'm not telling you."

"Okay." He shrugged. "No need. I already know all I need to. At least currently, I'm the closet thing you have to a possible soulmate. Whether you admit it or not, you know it's true. So I might not know if you think I might be a possible candidate, I do know that right now, it's either me, or no one."

I rolled my eyes and looked away from him to hide my light blush.

"Well, technically I do too. That whole thing proves you wanted to know. So, therefore you wanted to mentally note the competiton if there was any."

He laughed once again.

"Who are you and what have you done with Erica Hale?"

I looked at him with confusion as he continued to laugh..

"You really don't sound like yourself. Since when do you talk about me possibly being worried about competition for dating you?" He wheezed. "Man, you're so whipped. You really do like me." He giggled like a giddy child.

I stuck my tongue out at him and rolled my eyes.

"Shut up doofus."

"Doofus? Wow you really aren't yourself. You feeling okay?"

"I'm feeling fine Ben."

"If you say so."

We were once again quiet, and I noticed how close we were. Before I could stop myself I moved over and tilted my head so it was resting on his shoulder.

He looked over at me with a grin.

"You never cease to surprise me you know. I swear, your constant mood swings are giving me whiplash." He joked, taking the opportunity to put his arm around my shoulders.

"I seem to surprise myself quite a bit lately as well."

He nodded with a small smile and we fell into silence again.

Ben's POV:
I remember laying there just together, when we had another visitor. Or perhaps the same one again.

"Alright, now that I know the second part of your conversation, may I please hear the first children?" Catherine said, leaning against the wall in the corner.

We both jumped a little and sat up slowly. My arm was still around Erica's shoulders, until she moved away from me.

I felt by heart silently break a little and I mentally scolded myself. I should have expected it, this was the most we've really talked ever, and she's still getting used to talking about her feelings. And I needed to be more understanding and not freak out every time she moved away when someone else was around.

"Mother." Erica said, and I figured that was as close to a hello that she was gonna give Catherine.

"Hey again Mrs. Hale..." I said with a raised eyebrow and little smile.

"Hello again Benjamin." She said, trying to hide her amusement at our surprise.

"You okay now?" I asked politely.

"I was never not okay." She said with a tiny laugh. "I simply acted like that so I could catch you off guard and hear what you were conversing about."

"Of course you did." Erica said with an eye roll. "I'm an imbecile. I should've seen that coming."

"Pish posh dear. I am very capable of surprising you. Even if you saw that coming, I have other ways to eavesdrop."

"Yeah, that makes me feel so much better, thank you."

I tried to get out the window again since they were both closer to the door than I, but to no avail.

"Benjamin I do believe it's in your best interest to stay."

"With all due respect, I don't. I'm gonna end up between you two again and I'm trying very hard not to. I really think it's best if I leave you two to handle it because I really don't want to pick sides or upset anyone."

"Ben, stay." Erica looked at me. "Please."

I looked back and forth between them before sighing and sitting back down.

"Alright. I'll stay. But I'm not choosing sides. I am a completely objective 3rd party outsider with absolutely no personal interest in the matter."

"We all know that's not true." Erica gave me a pointed glance.

"I mean it. You two have to solve your problems amongst yourselves."

"I just want to know what you two talked about." Catherine said with a smile.

"It's none of your business mother."

"It is. I need to know when to start planning. Or to send out the invites."

"For what?" I asked.

Her smile brightened and I took a nervous breath.

"The wedding of course."

"Someone's getting married?" I asked. "Who?"

Erica looked at me and rolled her eyes again.

"OH." I realized what she meant. "Mrs. Hale I appreciate the thought... I think... but we aren't even dating. I doubt there will be a wedding and definitely not any time soon. She doesn't even like me." I tried to add for Erica's benefit.

"That's a load of poppycock if I've ever heard one. We all know that's not true."

I looked at Erica and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I tried."

She nodded with a tiny smile. "Appreciated."

"So the whole being upset thing was just a facade to trick us?"

"Indeed it was. I was surprised it worked to be honest. I felt like a less brutal Trojan Horse." She kept talking and teasing us but I didn't hear what she said.

Something had clicked in my head.

"I know that look." Erica said, intentionally interrupting her mother with a cocky and overly happy, malicious smile. "What'd you figure out?"

"Croatoan's plan." I said confidently. "I know what they're planning."

Okay, if you want I can make a part 3 but I don't think there's any point anymore since this oneshot is about their talk in the dorm, which is now over.