Chapter Text
“Two, three, four, five! Now, move!” Before he could even think about it, he had already ‘pushed’ Ben.
The man had not been prepared and he actually stumbled back once.
It took John less than one second to realize how stupid that had been, and he probably wouldn't have any other day, but right then he felt like shit and the guy had been beyond annoying for a while… Now, he knew it was really hard to predict the endgame of a possible fight between them both, but the possibilities were not very in his favor right then with such a headache, so that option was out of the table.
The other thing he could do was apologizing… but no way in hell. HE had done nothing wrong! If anything, Ben had been the one to hit him first!
John was convinced he had not been in the wrong. However, that didn't mean that Ben's expression, as he processed what had just happened, wasn't intimidating.
Before he could even decide on what to do, the man had already grabbed him by the back of the hoodie and started dragging him inside.
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Ben couldn’t believe it… The nerve of that little stinker! He had no idea what the hell John had been thinking, but the brat could be sure he was going to regret it.
It had not hurt, and it was not at all about that, but the mere intention. How dare that child even think it was a good idea trying to attack him?! Because Ben had been beyond patient those last months, he had put up with a lot of eye rolling and gestures he shouldn’t even tolerate. He was fucking Soldier Boy, he didn’t need to take any crap from anyone, even less a stupid entitled kid.
“I don’t know who the fuck got you under the impression you didn’t need to respect your elders, but you never try to attack me, NOT EVER.” He didn’t get how a child could be so spoiled… But being realistic and according to what Vogelbaum had explained, no one had really educated that boy in many ways that mattered. Just training and schoolwork crap.
Life was so fucking unfair… He had always wanted to have his own kids and raised them into decent people; now he had his own son and he had been realizing more and more everyday how much he would have to fix.
“You hit me first! Let go, you huge jerk!” John reacted and tried to pull away or at least get the man to stop walking, but it wasn’t working, Ben just kept heading towards the living area.
Seriously?!
“If you have any idea of what’s good for you,” Ben actually stopped and turned to face the teenager. “You will stop talking before you make it even worse for yourself. Didn’t anyone teach you respect over at Vogelbaum’s?”
The kid seemed to get motivated at that, but not in a regretful manner.
“SHUT UP!” Ben was surprised John pushed him again, this time way harder and would have probably made him stumble back had the man had a weaker stand. “SHUT UP RIGHT NOW OR I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” The kid’s eyes were already red and shining. “YOU GODDAMN COKEHEAD LOSER!”
There were many topics John disliked talking about, but Dr. Vogelbaum was one he couldn’t even handle thinking of…
When he was a little kid, Dr. Vogelbaum had been the only one in contact with him that treated him like… well, like a kid. Everyone else treated him like some kind of bomb or dinosaur; they acted like if they made a sudden movement or startled him somehow, they’d be doomed. The scientist, for whatever reason, had not.
John used to love the man’s brief visits when he was little, but then they started to turn painful and scary… They would do weird tests on him, and it was just creepy at the beginning, but then evolved into outright savage.
So no, John couldn’t handle or even process that the only person that had seemed to see him as a human had decided to dump him and just keep him as a testing subject.
Before he could try to even breathe to calm down, another slap had crossed his face. At that point, John was just sure he was going to have some kind of bruise, but Ben didn’t give him time to dwell on that before manhandling him even more.
By then, it was obvious the man had had enough. It was clear that no one had ever taught that little brat any manners and he was not living with the consequences of that.
He sat down on the sofa and pulled the boy down too, pretty much throwing him over his knee.
Ben had had a very unpleasant afternoon, evening and night: the kid had not shown up after schoolwork, which was unacceptable and John knew it very well; he’d not answered his phone not even once, which in all honesty only escalated Ben’s bad mood; he was still missing by dinner time, so the man had to cancel a dinner he’d planned with Countess to introduce her to John to go look for him instead… Ben had tried to tell himself all day that the kid’s absence was due to some stupid child stunt, but it got to a point he couldn’t ignore anymore when it got dark.
“You’re about to learn what fucking respect is.” Was the last thing the man warned, surprising even himself with his self control as he unbuckled his belt.
“Let me stand up!” John was still angry, but more on the annoyed side now. He'd never been in that position and had no idea what the hell Ben was thinking, the guy was probably high, but it was annoying and he wanted to move already. “Ben!”
Whatever he could have expected before, it never came to his mind that the man would grab the waist of his jeans and pull them down in one tug. What the hell was going on?!
“Stop!” He started fighting to get free now, but Ben also held tighter. “You fucking perv, let me go!”
Instead, the demand had the opposite effect. As soon as the words left his mouth, an impressively sharp stinging sensation landed on his backside, and the kid actually let out a pained scream.
“Shut the hell up, brat,” Ben ordered, throwing the broken belt across the room, but raising his hand to let it fall on the boy's backside just as hard. Damned leather thing had practically shattered, but he still had his arm and all the time in the world.
One really stupid thing to do had been calling him a cokehead, but 'perv'?! Stupidest mistake ever.
“Don't touch me!” John didn't really notice the pattern and, to him, the guy was trying to just beat him up not really caring where.
Instead of arguing Ben kept going, letting his hand fall harder every time and aiming for the same spot. Surely John had only gotten little kiddie spankings before, because he looked furious like a rabid dog, as if not believing the way he was being treated. Ben just ignored him, held tighter and moved to a different spot once his hand started stinging.
That John noticed; that the hitting moved to another spot, but then remained there.
“Stop!” The boy was beyond frustrated. He couldn't seem to get away, and even worse was that his pants were down… It was fucking humiliating!
Now, the kid had been subtle but defiant those last months, and Ben was not going to be putting up with any disrespect from any child, even less his own. If no one had taught that brat manners, he would. No son of his would act like an entitled little shit and get away with it.